Cervical collars have been developed to limit the range of motion of the cervical spine of an individual who has sustained trauma to their head and neck as a result from an accident, injury or illness. Orthopedic or rehabilitation style cervical collars offer the wearer optimal comfort, but provide minimal restriction of the range of the individual's cervical motion. Two-piece cervical collars as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,230,698, 6,254,560 and 7,141,031 incorporate a front portion and a back portion which are mechanically connected together around the neck of a wearer. Each portion is fabricated with an external plastic shell and a removable padded foam inner liner.
Although this type of cervical collar is comfortable to wear due to the padded foam liner, it provides the wearer with marginal range of motion limitations due to the design and connection of the chin support. For instance, the chin support is rigid and allows both a transverse (turning the head left and right) and lateral (moving the head downward to bring the ear closer to the shoulder) range of motion by the wearer. Also, a mechanical connection is made between the chin support and the separate front portion. However, that mechanical connection allows for unwanted movement and a greater range of wearer motion, which reduces cervical spine stabilization. The mechanical connection is also prone to breaking or becoming uncoupled, causing further or secondary injury to the wearer. Moreover, this style of cervical collar is unacceptable for emergency medical use due to its cumbersome semi-circular shape which prohibits easy application at the scene of an accident as well as vehicle storage requirements. These orthopedic or rehabilitation cervical collars are costly, cumbersome and do not provide the cervical spine support needed for emergency medical services.
One-piece cervical collars have also been developed, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,795,315 and 5,622,529. The cervical collar is fabricated with an external plastic shell and a foam inner liner. These emergency medical cervical collars are relatively easy to store and apply at the scene of an accident to a wearer. Although this type of cervical collar is designed to limit the range of motion of a wearer, it provides very little comfort and in many instances discomfort to the wearer due to the rigidity of the chin support which exerts unnecessary pressure on the bottom of the wearer's chin and mandible, causing further or secondary injury to the wearer.
All of these conventional cervical collars have numerous design shortcomings, especially with respect to the chin support. For instance, the, '698, '560 and '031 patents each has a chin support which incorporates a separate stiff flexible plastic material component that has to be mechanically fastened to the front portion. This results in a decrease of cervical spine stabilization which allows the wearer an increase in range of motion. The '529 and '315 patents each has a chin support with a rigid injection molded thermoplastic resin structure which can cause discomfort to the chin and mandible of the wearer.
Therefore, there is a need for an emergency medical cervical collar that will provide a high level of cervical spine immobilization by decreasing the wearer's range of motion while also providing a greater amount of comfort by allowing the chin support to be sufficiently flexible to conform to the shape of the wearer's chin.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cervical collar with a front portion that contains a chin support that is flexible along its length to accept and accommodate any wearer's uniquely shaped chin.
It is a further object of the present invention to eliminate the need for a separate chin support and a front portion that requires a mechanical fastener connection which impedes unwanted movement and uncoupling and thereby prevents further or secondary injury to the wearer.
It is another object of the present invention to fabricate the chin support without reinforcement or structure and only affixed to the front portion at the chin support distal ends to easily bend and flex to change with each wearer's unique chin shape.
It is a still further object of the present invention is to fabricate the chin support entirely perpendicular to the front portion.
Yet another object of the current invention is to provide a cervical collar with a front portion to include a side opening relief area within close proximately of each chin support which will facilitate and control the bend our curvature of the front portion without distorting the chin support.
And still yet another object of the current invention is to fabricate a cervical collar with injection molded rivet studs to include a unitary connection and eliminate mechanical fasteners which are prone to breaking and uncoupling.
These as well as additional objects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from an understanding of the following detailed description, drawings and claims.